mariol03/rtw88

rtw88

A repo for the newest Realtek rtlwifi codes forked form https://github.com/lwfinger/rtw88.

Created as it doesn't compile on Elementary OS 5.1.7 (Hera), beacause it uses an older kernel that it hasn't got fsleep.

Installation instruction

Requirements

You will need to install "make", "gcc", "kernel headers", "kernel build essentials", and "git". You can install them with the following command, on Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install make gcc linux-headers-$(uname -r) build-essential git

If any of the packets above are not found check if your distro installs them like that.

Installation

For all distros:

git clone https://github.com/lwfinger/rtw88.git
cd rtw88
make
sudo make install

Blacklisting (needed if you want to use these modules)

Some distros provide RTL8723DE drivers. To use this driver, that one MUST be blacklisted. How to do that is left as an exercise as learning that will be very beneficial.

If your system has ANY conflicting drivers installed, you must blacklist them as well. For kernels 5.6 and newer, this will include drivers such as rtw88_xxxx. Here is a useful link on how to blacklist a module

Once you have reached this point, then reboot. Use the command lsmod | grep rtw and check if there are any conflicting drivers. The correct ones are:

• rtw_8723de rtw_8723d rtw_8822be rtw_8822b rtw_8822ce rtw_8822c rtw_core and rtw_pci

If you have other modules installed, see if you blacklisted them correctly.

How to disable/enable a Kernel module

sudo modprobe -r rtw_8723de         #This unloads the module
sudo modprobe rtw_8723de            #This loads the module

Option configuration

If it turns out that your system needs one of the configuration options, then do the following:

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/<dev_name>.conf 

There, enter the line below:

options <device_name> <<driver_option_name>>=<value>

The available options for rtw_pci are disable_msi and disable_aspm. The available options for rtw_core are lps_deep_mode, support_bf, and debug_mask.

---

When your kernel changes, then you need to do the following:

cd ~/rtw88
git pull
make
sudo make install

Remember, this MUST be done whenever you get a new kernel - no exceptions.

I haven't tried this to build on an older kernel, if you have some problems try creating a GitHub issue with a listing of the build errors. Without the errors, the issue will be ignored.